15. Interview with a Captain

As appears to happen on many cruises these days, the Captain gave a chat show style interview in the theatre today, followed by a question and answer session from the capacity audience. Captan Bill Kent is obviously extremely experienced, has spent his entire career with the Company, lectures in various nautical themes to other staff and students at a marine college and has recently retired as a Commander in the Royal Navy Reserve where he had special responsibility for anti-pirate operations in the Gulf of Aden. In other words, he knows what he is taking about! He also comes across as extremely personable and with a very good sense of humour. Indeed, his noon day briefings are helpful and informative and always include a nugget of nautical trivia. All in all, we learned a lot and I thought many of the audience questions were very good ones.

Q. Is it true you are on the ship with one of the evening entertainers? (See my earlier post).

A. Yes.

Q. How many miles to the gallon does the ship do?

A. 80 feet.

Q. What happens to all the waste? Some is processed and, where permitted, put overboard. 

A. Some is burnt, some is taken ashore.

Q. How much does the anchor weigh?

A. Each anchor weighs 13 tons and each anchor cable weighs an additional 13 tons, so with 52 tons on the sea floor, the ship will not move even in a force 7 gale.

Q. What is your opinion of the captain of the Costa Concordia? 

A. He is an idiot.

Q. Which are the most spectacular ports to sail in to? 

A. Sydney, Vancouver, San Francisco.

Q. Is there anywhere you don't like to sail? 

A. I always like to see the Suez Canal in the rear view mirror. Sailing up the River Plate to Montevideo and Buenos Aries is always tricky.

Q. What happens when the pilots come aboard? 

A. We sit them down with a coffee and give them a magazine to read. If it wasn't for the fact that they are a legal requirement, most of them (but not all), are a waste of time.